"We should put this on a website or whatever"—A Homestar Runner History

January 24, 2017 10:03 AM

Having revived their signature Flash-driven cartoon, Homestar Runner, creators the Brothers Chaps recount its seventeen-year history in a winding tale of snark, underground popularity, no real business plan, creative burnout, and unlikely success. "A few weeks ago we got to spend all day 3D printing a fake action figure and filling it with beef stroganoff for the Walt Disney company. Once you hit that point, I don’t think you’re allowed to complain ever again." (previously)
posted by Doktor Zed (40 comments total)

There are some properties - Space Ghost, Sifl & Olly, MST3K - that were there for me in hard times, and as a consequence just never get old to me. Homestar Runner is definitely one of those.

The other day I caught myself describing something personally grave as "the most depressing thing I've ever seen, done or eaten." And then I cracked up, just for a moment.
posted by Countess Elena at 11:00 AM on January 24, 2017 [17 favorites]

Don't forget the amazingly comprehensive HomestarRunner Wiki.
I've subscribed to it so that I get informed when they make their once-every-few -years update to the site.
posted by Four Flavors at 11:00 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is a consummate post.
posted by orange ball at 11:07 AM on January 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

Good jorb!
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:28 AM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Tell me more about 3D printing a fake action figure and filling it with beef stroganoff for the Walt Disney company! Was is a threat or a joke to play on them? Were you paid to do it, and if so, why?
posted by filthy light thief at 11:34 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Just this weekend, my daughter made me proud when she said that Tom Brady in his giant coat looked like Strong Mad.
posted by Rock Steady at 11:37 AM on January 24, 2017 [15 favorites]

The moment Trogdor got referenced in the last season of Buffy, I got that feeling like I was one of the cool kids.

(Spoiler, I am not one of the cool kids)
posted by lumpenprole at 11:37 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

This FPP would be better with a fisheye lens.

Whomp, whomp.
posted by wenestvedt at 11:41 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

I got to feel like one of the Cool Kids when I recognized that the German students in the foozeball episode of Commmunity were humming some Homestar electronia. (Cool Kid or Super Nerd. Who can say? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
posted by thebrokedown at 11:47 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

So many great Homestar Runner memories. When I was a middle school teacher I would play the videos for my students as a reward. I coached the 7th grade Destination Imagination team and we walked around the regionals with the Strong Bad Sings CD blasting on repeat. And now I get to share it with my kids.
posted by ajryan at 11:53 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

We have lightswitch raves all the time at our house.
posted by Lucinda at 12:18 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'm kinda surprised they don't say anything about the Strong Bad video game they made with Telltale. It's not a particularly great video game, but if you think of it as like 100 interactive Strong Bad emails, it's pretty great--as entertaining and inventive as their other stuff--and must represent a significant chunk of their total Homestar Runner output. I always figured that making all the content for that 5-episode series of games must have been a major factor feeling burnt-out and needing to take a break.

(The fourth episode which is framed as an amateur Dangeresque movie that Strong Bad has wheedled or bullied all the characters into participating in, which they do with idiosyncratic levels of enthusiasm, success, and comprehension, is particularly great.)
posted by straight at 12:30 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Had a lightswitch rave in my house just the other day. My dog has a collar that is basically a flashing glow stick wrapped around a lab. The system was down.
posted by LegallyBread at 12:40 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Here the Doktor Zed, have a trophy!
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:40 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Also, I don't know about you but I definitely went to high school with the 4 Gregs, along with Theater Greg, Goth Greg, and Personality Disorder Greg.
posted by Countess Elena at 1:02 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I had an Everybody To The Limit! bumper sticker with Strong Bad on it on my 1995 Civic from 2006 or so until I junked the car this year. I am really sad that although they have some wonderful new merch, I cannot get a replacement for my old bumper sticker.
posted by unknownmosquito at 1:11 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Homestar Runner 4 LYFE, yo. Mrs. Example and I to this day quote Stinkoman (the 20X6 Strong Bad): "Are you asking for a CHALLEEEEEEEEEEEEENGE?".
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:34 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

This is a great job, Doktor Zed. I'mma gonna buy you a pizza!
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 1:38 PM on January 24, 2017

I still have a plush The Cheat, though the little mechanism that makes noise has sadly died.

Which is probably for the best, as when he was lurking in my closet and would chitter at me when touched, it would scare the crap out of me. Every time.

Also, I say "For secret eating!" like Marshie all the time.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 1:40 PM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I've always really loved that Homestar began as an animation made in Mario Paint on a Super Nintendo.
posted by oulipian at 1:41 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Also, don't forget The Doubleclicks ode to Trogdor
posted by Dr. Twist at 1:47 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I feel strongly urged to leave the room at this time.
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:59 PM on January 24, 2017

So...The last remaining reason to keep Flash on your computer?
posted by Thorzdad at 2:26 PM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's all so quotable! I still say "Ow, my skin" probably weekly. (And "I have a crush on every boy!" but not nearly enough.) Imagine my joy at playing the embedded video in the article. Comedy Gold still.

I need to dig up the The Cheat Action Heros ones....
eta : Cheat Commandos!
posted by travertina at 2:28 PM on January 24, 2017

Also, I say "For secret eating!" like Marshie all the time.

same
posted by Rock Steady at 3:06 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Also, I say "For secret eating!" like Marshie all the time.

Same, too. And "Oh I doubt it. I drove," like Homestar.
posted by dayintoday at 3:46 PM on January 24, 2017

When I bought a new car in 2006, I had several incidents of trying to get into someone else's car, and shuffled through our collection of toys and stuff to find something I could put on or in my car as an identifier. We had a selection of HR window clings, and The Cheat was just the right size to be nicely framed in one of my triangular way-back windows.

11 years later, still, every once in a while, someone will shout THE CHEAT!!1!! at me and for a brief baffled second I wonder if I'm about to die, and then I turn around and look at my car and remember it's there.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:26 PM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

I can actually reveal the beef stroganoff action figure thing. It was the subject of one of the final bits they did for their wonderful Two More Eggs series for the Disney Channel.

It's from a fake commercial for the Stroganauts, spacefaring superheroes fueled by the power of beef stroganoff, which kids can buy in special refill packs. Here, educate yourselves.
posted by JHarris at 4:37 PM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Also, I like to think that if you click a random secret spot on this page, a familiar voice will suddenly say: "DUuuAaaAHH!! I WAS RAISED BY A CAN OF BEENS!"
posted by JHarris at 5:03 PM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

The most depressing thing I've ever seen, done or eaten was to put on my angle wing surcoat over my armour at an SCA demo (featuring a slightly modified version of the Midrealm Heraldry - At 0:38) and absolutely no one got the reference. Not a soul.

Quite a let down from a few years earlier when it all but made me the Greek god Apollo.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 9:47 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Strong Bad Sings is still great!

Once upon a long time ago I got a Homestar Runner thing for my boss for Christmas, and I ordered a Tshirt at the same time. On the site it was shown with a URL on the sleeve, which I dislike, so in the order there was a text note field thingy and I asked if it would be possible to get it without the sleeve ink. To no reply, but when I received the items the shirt was just plain red with a star in the middle and nothing else. Some lick-on tattoos, too, which I think I still have, so if that's your kind of thing MeMail me.
posted by rhizome at 10:09 PM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

To this very day I still find myself saying "doo hoo hoo! This is some good cake!" now and then.
posted by aubilenon at 12:54 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

The one and only time I will tolerate Flash is HomestarRunner.com.
posted by prepmonkey at 8:49 AM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

It is eminently quotable! I still say:

- the jibblies
- your head asplode
- burninated
- jorb
- Dooglas!
- I don't like food anymore!!!!!
- Did you just say parakeet?!?!
- Guh . . . Fuh . . . Buh . . . (I used the Homestar Date Simulator a lot to explain how I was failing at dating)
- Is my unnawears showing?
- Grood. I mean, great. And good. Great and good.
- I can do it! I will do it nine times.
- I was saving that for about five seconds ago! Perfect! Timing!
- Computer over? Virus equals very yes? That's not a good prize!
- Yes . . . very yes!!!!
- My blood hurts . . .
- Possssuuuuummmsss . . .

Literally every time I have to say a normal word, like "possums", or "good", or I tell someone I can do it, I have to say it a la HomestarRunner.

I also have a friend who made me Trogdor magnets our of those beads you iron. The knight and the burninated peasant are still hanging out just fine, but Trogdor needed major reconstructive surgery recently.

And then there's this.
posted by chainsofreedom at 10:31 AM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

I forgot one!

- Garbledina.
posted by chainsofreedom at 10:42 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Literally every time I have to say a normal word, like "possums", or "good", or I tell someone I can do it, I have to say it a la HomestarRunner.

CAWRACTEHS!
GAEMBS!
E-BAYLS!
DOWN-WOAAADS!
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:17 PM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

OMG, yes, so quotable. "Light globes" is on my hardware store shopping list RIGHT NOW. When the hubs says he's checking his email, I always ask if he "hope[s] it's from a female." Yes, light switch raves, doing a load of "loadry," hubs "wears long pants, [he's] a long pants man," our dog door is named Trogdor, my 7-foot long, metal office desk is named "Clanky" (too long), and I can always do stuff nine times.

Also, this FPP is just in time for Valentimes. Serious times.
posted by mon-ma-tron at 8:20 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Literally last night we passed some possum roadkill on our way to Tai Chi class and I turned to my husband and said "possssuuuuuummmssssss . . ."

For a few years on Halloween I printed out the pumpkin stencils and made Homestar jack o lanterns. I did a Trogdor one and a Strong Mad.
posted by chainsofreedom at 6:09 AM on January 26, 2017

I am a vampire and
posted by Lyn Never at 6:22 AM on January 26, 2017

our dog door is named Trogdor

That made me laugh.
posted by straight at 10:26 AM on January 26, 2017